TY - JOUR
T1 - Non-Markovian quantum processes: Complete framework and efficient characterization
AU - Pollock, Felix A.
AU - Rodríguez-Rosario, César
AU - Frauenheim, Thomas
AU - Paternostro, Mauro
AU - Modi, Kavan
PY - 2018/1/25
Y1 - 2018/1/25
N2 - Currently, there is no systematic way to describe a quantum process with memory solely in terms of experimentally accessible quantities. However, recent technological advances mean we have control over systems at scales where memory effects are non-negligible. The lack of such an operational description has hindered advances in understanding physical, chemical, and biological processes, where often unjustified theoretical assumptions are made to render a dynamical description tractable. This has led to theories plagued with unphysical results and no consensus on what a quantum Markov (memoryless) process is. Here, we develop a universal framework to characterize arbitrary non-Markovian quantum processes. We show how a multitime non-Markovian process can be reconstructed experimentally, and that it has a natural representation as a many-body quantum state, where temporal correlations are mapped to spatial ones. Moreover, this state is expected to have an efficient matrix-product-operator form in many cases. Our framework constitutes a systematic tool for the effective description of memory-bearing open-system evolutions.
AB - Currently, there is no systematic way to describe a quantum process with memory solely in terms of experimentally accessible quantities. However, recent technological advances mean we have control over systems at scales where memory effects are non-negligible. The lack of such an operational description has hindered advances in understanding physical, chemical, and biological processes, where often unjustified theoretical assumptions are made to render a dynamical description tractable. This has led to theories plagued with unphysical results and no consensus on what a quantum Markov (memoryless) process is. Here, we develop a universal framework to characterize arbitrary non-Markovian quantum processes. We show how a multitime non-Markovian process can be reconstructed experimentally, and that it has a natural representation as a many-body quantum state, where temporal correlations are mapped to spatial ones. Moreover, this state is expected to have an efficient matrix-product-operator form in many cases. Our framework constitutes a systematic tool for the effective description of memory-bearing open-system evolutions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85040965561&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevA.97.012127
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevA.97.012127
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85040965561
VL - 97
JO - Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics)
JF - Physical Review A (Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics)
SN - 1050-2947
IS - 1
M1 - 012127
ER -